Fairy Tale Sailboats

Today, I have a real treat for you all, the Fairy Tale Sailboats quilt!

When I designed this quilt, I wanted to incorporate a few different techniques, so to make the quilt, you will be using template piecing, paper piecing, and raw edge applique. I decided on raw edge applique to give the sails a worn look once the quilt was washed (like the sails have been out at sea in the wind and elements).

One of my other goals was to use all of the fabrics from the line. I mostly succeeded, with the exception of being able to use 3 or 4 of them.

AND, this quilt will leave you with scraps, one of my favorite parts! The only fabrics that you won’t have many scraps from is the backing/border fabric, and the binding fabric.

1 fq bundle of fairy tale friends (I used the print 21608 16 from the bundle for the paper pieced squares between the boats)

1/2 yard binding fabric (I used 21605 21)

2 1/2 yards of border and backing fabric (I used 21605 24)

3 yards of background fabric (I used 21098 78)

60X60″ batting

Template for sails (Right and Left), background (Right and Left) … included in “Printer Friendly Version” at the bottom of the post.

16 each paper piecing templates for each mast and boat.

*NOTES*

All templates need to be enlarged 200%.

As you are cutting fabrics from the background templates, paper pieced mast and boat sections, make sure and add 1/4″ seam allowance around each edge (except the boat template. only add 1/4″ seam allowance to the longest top edge).

The template for the paper pieced mast and boat have already been reversed for you.

The sails do not need to have a 1/4″ seam allowance added.

1. CUT YOUR FABRIC:

Using the background fabric, cut 16 pieces from Right background template and 16 pieces from Left background template, making sure to include a 1/4″ seam allowance around each edge.

Using your choice of prints from the fat quarter bundle, cut 16 right and left sail templates.

Using the border fabric, cut 6 strips, 3 1/2″ wide.

Using the binding fabric, cut 6 strips, 2 1/2″ wide.

2. PAPER PIECE THE BOAT AND MAST SECTIONS:

Using the scraps of background fabric from cutting in step 1, 16 different prints from the fat quarter bundle, and the fabric for the square in the middle of the boats, paper piece 16 boat sections, making sure to leave a 1/4″ seam allowance around the longest top edge only.

Using your chosen mast fabrics, paper piece 16 mast sections. The shorter end of the mast is the background fabric and the longer end is the mast fabric. Make sure to leave a 1/4″ seam allowance around the edges.

(boats, backgrounds, sails, and masts all in a pretty pile!)

3. SEW THE SECTIONS TOGETHER:

With right sides together, sew a mast section to one of the Left background pieces. Press seam toward the mast.

With right sides together, sew a Left background piece to this section. Press the seam toward the mast.

With right sides together, sew the mast/background section to a boat section. Press the seam towards the boat.

Using a set of sails and one block, place the sails where you would like them and use a few dots of glue to tack them down.

Using a 1/4″ seam, sew the sails to the block.

Trim the block to 12 1/4″, making sure to use the corner of the triangle below the boat as your guide to trim by. (i.e. use the triangle corner to square up the rest of the block, making sure not to trim any of the triangle fabric away so that your square points will all line up when sewing your blocks together.)

*NOTE* I thought this block was going to end up at 12 1/2″ square, however, I couldn’t get a single one of them to be a perfect 12 1/2″, so I adjusted it to 12 1/4″ instead. If you can get your blocks to be a perfect 12 1/2″, then by all means use a 12 1/2″ block instead!

4. ARRANGE AND SEW THE QUILT TOP:

Arrange your blocks to your liking sew them together into groups of 4.

Sew the 4 blocks together and sew the border strips around the outside. (I included the selvedge in the border strips when it was interesting to me.)

5. ASSEMBLE YOUR QUILT

Piece the back together using the rest of the backing/border fabric and whichever remaining fq fabrics you’d like.

Make a quilt sandwich and quilt your quilt. (For my quilt, I free motion quilted vertical stripes down the sails, waves in the boat sections, clouds and seagulls in the seam area where the groups of 4 boats were sewn together, and waves in the border section.)

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